Lawyer Indicted, Accused of Diverting $380K in Law Firm Fees

Updated: A Philadelphia lawyer has been federally indicted for tax evasion, wire fraud and obstruction of justice, after allegedly diverting $380,000 from his clients that should have gone to his law firm.

Charles Naselsky, 50, is also accused of filing a false 2005 tax return and falsely telling investigators in 2009 that the client payments he received were actually nontaxable loans, reports the Philadelphia Business Journal. Its article is based on information from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Philadelphia.

The law firm at which the alleged diversion of funds took place has not been identified. Although Naselsky is being suspended from his current firm, Deeb Petrakis Blum & Murphy, at which he has worked for approximately a year, he has engaged in no misconduct there, managing partner Jonathan Petrakis tells the publication’s Law & Finance blog.

Attorney Tom Ostrander, who represents Naselsky, says his client “looks forward to addressing these charges and bringing this matter to a prompt conclusion.”

The blog says Naselsky has worked at five different firms in a little over a decade.

According to another article last year in the Law & Finance blog and a cached version of a Deeb Petrakis press release which is no longer available on the firm’s website, the real estate and corporate practitioner joined Deeb Petrakis in 2009 from Blank Rome, along with another Blank Rome partner.

Updated at 3:56 p.m. to include information from Law & Finance blog posts and cached Deeb Petrakis press release.